The Hindu : Nasscom panel considers telecom bottlenecks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 17, 2002

Business

Business

Nasscom panel considers telecom bottlenecks

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 16. Keeping in view the fact that telecom is a key input for the software industry, National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has formed a telecom working group to address common issues facing the IT and telecom industry.

The panel will identify and address regulatory issues and also identify market opportunities for software companies with regard to the telecom sector.

Headed by the Nasscom chief, Arun Kumar, the group recently conducted its first meeting, which was represented by some leading telecom vendors such as Cisco, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, NDC and Hughes Software Services.

Some of the issues highlighted in the first meeting were: Need for rationalisation of customs duties on various telecom products and halving of excise duties to 8 per cent, need for the government to allow de-bonding of technology products used over three years and allow 100 per cent depreciation of telecom products in the first year.

It also considered some security concerns regarding wireless applications/technology, which is restricting flow of technology across India and called for permitting CUG/PSTN connectivity in order to help cut telecom costs between companies.

In order to augment telecom density and increase rural penetration, the group felt that a combination of wireline and wireless technologies should be permitted by the government. Also with the emergence of wide band networks such as CDMA/GPRS, there is an opportunity for Indian software companies to develop mobile data applications. The group also discussed the need to share best practices that Indian vendors have gained by servicing global telecom majors with Indian telecom companies in the domestic market.

The objective of the working group is to provide a platform to address issues and share best practices between the IT and the telecom industry.

The group will identify regulatory, policy and procedural issues that are affecting the growth of telecom industry with regard to the software sector.

The group aims to collate inputs and present a combined set of recommendations to the government that are hampering the growth of both these sectors.

The forum will also identify market opportunities for the software sector to help the Indian telecom sector be efficient and competitive.

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